Panel 1: Here, I’m using a classic—if somewhat “old-school”—spray of cartoony sweat drops akin to the work of mangaka like Atsuji Yamamoto and Hisao Tamaki. The latter artist, by the way, drew the excellent Star Wars: A New Hope manga adaptation, which my buddy Joe Wight and I did the cover artwork for when Dark Horse Comics translated the 4-part miniseries. Note, by the way, when I went online to check Tamaki’s name, I found that Wikipedia incorrectly credited publication of the Star Wars manga adaptation to TokyoPop instead of Dark Horse. Gasp! Wikipedia mistaken? What is the world coming to? (Though I should add, in Wikipedia’s defense, that the entry correctly notes that “This article has multiple issues.”)

Note also that, when she’s pissed off enough, Emp’s normally incessant insecurities and body-image issues clearly fade out of her mind, to the point that here she’s voluntarily stripping herself without a second thought.The takeaway? Not a great idea to piss Emp off this much.

Panel 3: My idea has always been that the “feet” of Emp’s supersuit appear like very tight socks, without actually separating around her individual toes, a riff which would tend to remind me of those weirdly repulsive “toe shoes” one occasionally sees. This, however, is a rather challenging concept to visually convey at times, given that here we see a shot that does almost look like the hypermembrane is separating around her toes. Oh, well.

Panel 4: The song that Lone Gunman’s crooning is, of course, Bon Jovi’s “Wanted Dead or Alive,” because ol’ LG seems to be a bit of a douche—or a “douchecape,” to use the proper Empverse slang. (My apologies, of course, to New England Patriots coach Bill Bellichick, who from all reports is a heeeyuge fan of “the Jove.”)

Note also, in panels 4 and 5, the two variant forms of a favorite sound FX of mine: the softer, quieter “FWIPP” and the stronger, louder “FWAPP.” These are quite similar to “THIPP” and “THAPP,” two FX variations that I use, respectively, for a “small” sound like a hypodermic piercing skin and a “large” sound like Emp or Ninjette landing after a leap. (Not to be confused with “UPP” sound FX like “SHLUPP,” which I use to accompany and emphasize wet or gooshy imagery.) What can I say, folks? Only a maddeningly narrow range of FX actually sound right—or read right, anyway—to the inscrutable algorithm in my head that determines the acceptability of such riffs.

-Adam Warren